I felt the trace impulses of the command, worming their way into my brain. Although she didn't have enough time to control me, Angel's power was hard to shake.

"Ignore it, guys," Annabeth coached, and I realized Gaea had tried it on everyone. Annabeth went around to each of us, making sure we were fine.

"Of course," said the older demon warlock, Qwan. No. 1 nodded, looking worried.

Holly and Artemis nodded. Emma, Jacob, Harry, and Hermione each gave a nod as well. "We're fine," Emma said.

When Annabeth reached Percy, he smiled. "No homicidal urges. You?"

"No; we're all right, then," Annabeth said, nodding.

"Talk about anticlimactic," muttered Jacob. "I was so looking forward to another fight for our lives."

Annabeth gave Percy a kiss and turned to everyone with a troubled expression. "Gaea must not have figured out how to use Angel's powers in time, although I don't know why. Thoughts?"

Foaly stepped up to the question. "Before you ask, I'm fine, in case you were wondering," he said, then answered the question. "Maybe inhabiting another, more earthly being takes time to figure out. We haven't studied soul extraction and insertion as much as we could have." He shared a glance with Artemis and Holly. "Or should have."

I didn't bother to ask. "So we were lucky. Are we safe now?"

No. 1 picked opened the wire mesh of a cage and brought out a small brown rodent. "Well, you'll never be safe, if the rest of your life is like what it is so far, but safe from Gaea? Most likely."

He handed me the hamster. It looked perfectly normal, except for the glowing green eyes.

"Excess power?" Artemis guessed thoughtfully.

"Yep," said No. 1. "The hamster just barely holds her essence."

Like I cared. When Gaea the hamster tried to bite me, I handed it to Emma and turned my attention to Angel.

Angel was unconscious, but her eyelids fluttered. I lifted her head and looked at Foaly.

"When will she wake up?"

"Too soon to say," he responded. "She fainted. But we could probably wake her in one of two ways: smelling salts, or a buzz baton to the stomach."

"Are all centaurs bad at humor, or is it just you?" I snapped, not in the mood. I couldn't remember the last time I actually had been in the mood.

"Smelling salts it is, then."

He dug around in some messy desk drawers, coming over with the stuff. He revived Angel, and she sat up, blinking slowly.

"Angel?" I said. Now that she was no longer possessed, she looked even younger, making me realize how many years had passed since this moment in time.

"…Max? Why… why do you look so old?"

I hugged her, afterward looking her in the eyes carefully. "It's a long story," I said.

She frowned. "I know. Max, that woman was inside my head. I was her. I… I saw things…"

Her eyes welled with tears. I hugged her again, worried about her, worried about her stability. If there was anything I could do, anything at all…

"You're okay now, Ange," I whispered. "I came here to help the flock. I'm going to fix everything."

Angel pulled back, looking at me. "Gaea… she said things. Why are you… why are you the one always being the hero?"

I froze. That sounded oddly close to some of the things Angel had said years ago… I want to be the leader. I reminded myself that this was a different timeline. Plus, in this time, Angel hadn't even done any of that yet.

But what if her run-in with Gaea was the cause of her actions in her future?

Again, I had to remind myself of something Artemis had said earlier today. The modified time turner they'd created was designed to be, simply put, paradox-free. I was most likely worrying for nothing.

"I don't know, Angel," I said to her, realizing belatedly that she could read my thoughts. "It takes a lot of work to be the hero. Trust me."

She frowned deeper but didn't continue that line of conversation. "After seeing her mind, everything is dull. She was all-powerful… Max, being mortal is awful."

I stared at her, my heart breaking. Angel, my Angel, was not supposed to talk like this. There needed to be some way to fix her.

"There is a way," she said, listening to my thoughts. "The fairies have a technology called mind wiping… please, Max. There are things I want to forget."

I was stunned. Mind wiping, as in memory erasing? "Sweetie…"

But then I realized it was the best option by far. I might not have been happy with it, but she couldn't go on with this in her brain.

"Well?" I said sharply to Foaly, who jumped. He and the others all looked embarrassed to be listening.

Foaly cleared his throat. "We could give her a mind wipe. Block wipes are faster, but she might miss some memories, and fine-tune wipes are more accurate, but they take longer."

"Fine-tune," I said immediately. "I don't care how long it takes."

Wordlessly, Hermione put her hand on my shoulder. I met her gaze.

Poor Angel…

Sorry this chapter was so anticlimactic at the start, but not everything has to be a problem. Bye!